Body Rituals of the Nacrimera

[Ahmie]

[Edit- Split from Can Klingon gods be killed?  -Klythe]

    You might want to look into This study of the rituals of the Nacirema people.  They were once a highly religious society that has since become highly secularized and somewhat technological.   Keep in mind as you read that the Nacirema do not see what they do as ritualistic, to them it is just the way things are done.  Also, this was written half a century ago, the culture may have shifted slightly and it may have changed a few of the details of the rituals, but it is still a fairly accurate description of thier backward culture.

I only registered to this site to make this reply, so please don't feel disrespected if I don't respond again.  I found the link you provided extremely interesting, but even more interesting that it doesn't appear that anyone on here realizes that it is a work of satire.  Please note that Nacirema is American backwards.

I stumbled upon this lovely site while looking for more information on Klingon mythology while watching re-runs, you seem like a really interesting bunch.  I may return sometime, but I'm really not a frequent forum user (which is all the more sad as I own two unrelated forums of my own).

[Klythe]

     
    *laughs*  Just because we play along with a joke, does not mean we don't get it.      I'm splitting this thread to preserve the joke, and because the discussion of the disconnect between how an anthropologist views a culture and how the culture views itself is important.  It's amazingly easy to make judgements a culture from the outside with limited information.  In fact it's a fundamental skill of all intelligent beings, but as the article shows there are limitations to how effective this technique can be.

    Also, I didn't want to 'ruin' it for people who might read the thread later.   I tried this on my brother and really got him pretty good. 

[qoSagh]

The satire was well done, and actually contains one of my favorite qualities in such a work. I just re-read it and found more puns and jokes. I suspect that it will take a couple of more reads to get them all. latipso was my favorite, reminds me of the beware of tobor message in Robert Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky.

[Klythe]

   Perhaps I should have marked my own jest better...

... but it is still a fairly accurate description of thier backward culture.

   I don't remember how I heard about it first, but pretty much the joke was spoiled for me before it was told.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that when I searched for it to find a link, it was the first time I actually read the article.  I feel kinda bad about that...
 
    I think my brother had this presented the perfect way, I kept egging him on about how freaky these people were and he got all the way through the article thinking "What a screwed up culture...".   Then I told him to read it again after spelling it out(backwards) for him.   He immediately started to protest some of the points, as I explained and he read more, trying to find a clear untrurth.  The more he read, the softer his complaints got, until he was left grumbling and grudgingly accepting it.

[qoSagh]

Another strange thought occurred to me. Just because this was written as a joke, and is a work of fiction, it is still just as valuable a resource. Since it was originally part of a discussion on Klingon gods and ceremonialism, I see no reason why one work of fiction should not provide some source material for another fictional race. It really is too bad no one ever wrote a follow up piece, that would elaborate on other aspects of their "culture".

[Klythe]

    That is exactly why I addressed it to you.  The best learning materials are both entertaining and thought provoking.  If we think of rituals only as ancient ceremonies that are mere elorobration on events the culture has acknowledged as important and worth celebrating and remembering, then we are missing a whole lof of rituals that are done for other purposes.

    Heck, I have a bunch of rituals in my job.   There are some things we do, we don't fully understand why, but it is generally accepted that things are much more likely to go wrong(or worse) when we don't.   Although you wouldn't hear anyone call them 'rituals' or 'rites'  they are still performed habitually with a reverence for the times before, when things broke all the time.   Rituals naturally pop up, "This is just the way we've always done it" again and again, only to be destroyed by a new guy trying something new, or very rarely someone who has been there a while and for some reason is dissatisfied with the way things are done and has the luxury of experimenting.  I try to break these 'superstitious' rituals when I can, but even I've been suprised to find a new guy break a ritual I'd been unaware I was following.

    Having read this article, you should be able to recognise similiar patterns from your own experience in yourself and in others.  Thinking about these rituals may give you a deeper understanding of how rituals form and evolve at the individual level, and that will give you more power when thinking about how they apply at the cultural level